Ranking Member Stansbury’s Opening Remarks at DOGE Republicans’ Hearing Ruthlessly Attacking Non-Profits and Threatening Americans’ Basic Rights
Washington, D.C. (June 4, 2025)—Below is an opening statement from Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency. The remarks were delivered at today’s hearing, wherein Chairwoman Greene and DOGE Republicans relentlessly attacked nonprofits and civil society organizations— once again acting outside the jurisdiction of the committee to advance the Trump Administration’s extremist agenda.
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Ranking Member Melanie Stansbury
Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency
“Public Funds, Private Agendas: NGOs Gone Wild”
June 4, 2025
Before we get started, I want to take a moment to observe that this very subcommittee was created in January to act as the congressional tip of the spear for DOGE and Elon Musk’s efforts inside the federal government, which our GOP colleagues were falling all over themselves to get in on the action.
In fact, I don’t know if you know this Madame Chairwoman, but one of your own GOP members who couldn’t get on the committee contacted me to see if I could help because they were so desperate to participate in this activity.
But here we are. I feel like we should play a breakup song in the midst of the breakup of the GOP with Elon Musk and DOGE, and yet still the zombie lurches on. I think it’s interesting that people are barely saying his name in these halls, and this subcommittee barely has any credibility at this point.
And Elon Musk still hasn’t appeared under oath in front of this committee or anybody here in Congress. And in fact, Donald Trump himself apparently asked his own aides this week if DOGE was “bullshit.” Donald Trump asked if DOGE was bullshit. Meanwhile, our friend, Mr. Musk is going crazy on Twitter. We just checked, he’s still going at it, and he literally has been tweet storming the GOP for the last 24 hours and he says, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. You know, you did wrong.”
And you know what I find interesting about his tweet is that he says, “I’m sorry, I just can’t stand it anymore.” And I think, you know, the American people have been there for the last three and a half months as they’ve dismantled the federal government, as Musk and Trump and his friends here have helped lay wake to the federal government, dismantling federal agencies, firing thousands of federal workers, stealing your private data, and costing the federal government millions of dollars.
And in fact, it appears that they may have actually cost more money than they apparently saved. So, it’s hard to take any of this seriously or with any credibility.
Musk lied about DOGE and its savings. The President and the Speaker, just this morning, once again, lied about the big abomination of the bill and the deficit spending in it. There was a misrepresentation of a witness in this hearing room last time. There were lies about the budget reconciliation and yes, the DOGE package, which was transmitted to Congress yesterday.
I don’t think I even need to comment on the wild journey of baseless conspiracy theories that we just heard. So, it’s very clear that DOGE has made America less safe, less secure, undermined our global and national security, compromised our data privacy, impacted our ability to serve our vulnerable communities, and left the government in total chaos.
And yet, many of these DOGE brothers have implanted themselves inside federal agencies and are now answering directly to the West Wing and to the Director of Office of Management and Budget, Mr. Russell Vought, who is testifying just across this campus on his bill for the FY 26 budget, which would eviscerate these programs.
So, I want to say first they came for our federal agencies, then they came for our judges and law firms and the rule of law, then they came for the free press and your freedom of speech, then they came for higher education and our children, then they came for congressional offices, and now they are coming for civil society and nonprofit organizations.
What are nonprofit organizations? Food banks, legal aid clinics, homeless shelters, organizations that are the glue of our communities. In fact, right now, they are withholding a half trillion dollars illegally from nonprofit organizations that provide services for our communities, public safety, health services, housing, the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, Boys and Girls Club, and Habitat for Humanity.
Is this the dark money scare that we’re hearing across the aisle? I think all of us understand what these organizations do in our communities but let us be clear: the actions that are happening here in this committee and which the administration are trying to execute through executive actions, through letters, and sending DOGE employees facelessly and illegally into nonprofit organizations are illegal. They lack moral authority, and they lack legal authority. The truth is simple. Neither the President, nor any other executive branch official, has the power to unilaterally revoke an organization’s tax exempt status or to use these authoritarian tactics to try to intimidate our nonprofit and civil society organizations.
But if my colleagues across the aisle want to talk about dark money networks. We can look no further than this very hearing room because if we want to understand the dark money funded networks that are making the government run right now, let’s talk about Project 2025.
The witnesses who are here today as part of the organizations that helped to craft it. Mr. Vought, who was at the helm as the architect of that document, and the folks who are inside the federal government right now, dismantling our agencies and attacking every aspect of our democracy. We will not stand for it.
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